1664: New Jersey becomes a British colony as King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James, the Duke of York

1879: Zulu forces surprised a wagon train escorted by men of the 80th Regiment at the Ntombe River. The commanding officer, Captain Moriarty, was killed in the first rush, and the other officer, Lieutenant Hayward, abandoned his men and fled. The situation was only saved by Sergeant Booth, who rallied a few men and covered the retreat of the main party for more than three miles before the Zulus broke off their pursuit.

His action having saved at least fifty lives, Booth was awarded the Victoria Cross & later achieved the rank of colour-sergeant.

The London Gazette has him as a Colour Sergeant, but on the day of the Battle of Ntombe, he was actually a Sergeant, his promotion came the following day to replace a Colour Sergeant killed in the action. The gazetting of his VC was delayed due to the fact the surviving officer from the action Lt. Henry Hollingworth Harward was court-martialled for cowardice, the trial commenced on 20 February 1880 and concluded on 27 February 1880, during the course of the trial Booth's award appeared in the London Gazette on 24 February 1880.

1900: Lord Roberts column reached Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State as part of his strategy of extending the war into the heart of the Boer republics

1915: No less than seven VCs were won in a single day at the height of the British offensive at Neuve Chapelle.

Corporal Anderson, Yorkshire Regiment, repelled an enemy attack with grenades and rifle fire.

Guardsman Barber, Grenadier Guards, used grenades in a lone attack so effectively that large numbers of Germans surrendered to him; he was killed in action later in the day.

Lance Corporal Fuller, also Grenadier Guards, achieved a similar feat, taking 50 prisoners single-handed.

Company Sergeant Major Daniels and Corporal Noble of the Rifle Brigade cut paths through heavy barbed wire entanglements, fully exposed to enemy fire. Both were wounded, Noble fatally.

Captain Foss, Bedfordshire Regiment, led just eight men to recapture a trench and take prisoner 52 Germans, who had previously wiped out a much larger British attack.

Private Rivers, Sherwood Foresters, twice broke up German counter-attacks on his own ; he was killed on the second occasion.

Further north, in Belgium, Lieutenant Martin, Royal Engineers, despite already being wounded, led a small bombing party armed with large numbers of grenades in an attack on a difficult section of German trenches. He and his men took the position, then held it for well over two hours against German counter-attacks, before being ordered to retire due to lack of progress elsewhere in the attack. Martin received the eighth Victoria Cross of the day.

1940: The Royal Navy’s Home Fleet returned to station at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands from Rosyth and Loch Ewe after the completion of a substantial improvements to anti-aircraft and anti-submarine defences.

Plans were finalised for the invasion of Norway. Landings were planned at Narvik and Trondheim in order to secure the rail line to Sweden and its large iron-ore fields, thereby denying Germany vitally needed raw materials

1941: The original incident used in Compton Mackenzie's Whisky Galore occured in the Hebrides when a cargo ship (Politician) ran aground with her holds full of whisky. Islanders hid the quarter of a million bottles from Customs officers

1942: Japanese Prime Minister General Tojo Hideki urged Australia to submit to Japanese rule or face an invasion like the recently conquered Dutch East Indies

1943: Bomber Command returned to Essen, which it had bombed with significant accuracy on 5 March. Once again, the new Oboe blind-bombing system allowed Pathfinder Mosquitoes to mark the target with precision, and the Main Force bombing was centred on the huge Krupps armaments factory, causing yet more damage.